This is my grandmother's recipe and is about as easy and tasty as it gets. Loaded with umami!, the seared meat and concentrated tomato, enhanced by the wine and garlic, combine to create a ragú to die for! I have to be careful not to eat it all while 'tasting' for seasoning. It is a meater olive oil -based ragú and not the juicy tomato-based bolognese that is included below in TASTY TRANSFORMATIONS.

METHOD

Heat the oil in a heavy-bottom saucepan. Add the garlic and onion. When these are sizzling, add the meat and sear it over a moderate-to-high heat until well browned. Season and add the bay leaf and tomato paste. Cook over low heat, stirring often to prevent the sauce from burning until the oil begins to separate from the sauce. Add the wine and cook for another 5 minutes until the wine is absorbed. Toss with the cooked pasta and serve with plenty of freshly grated Parmesan and black pepper.

RECOMMENDED PASTAI love this sauce with conchiglie (pasta shells) that trap the sauce or fusillli, but my kids love it with spaghetti.

TASTY TRANSFORMATIONS

For a juicy Bolognaise, add two 14-ounce cans of chopped tomato and a pinch of dried oregano. Or better still, add enough sofrritto basic sug to give the consistency required. A good quality tomato pasta sauce from a jar could also be added with fast, excellent results.

NOTE True Bolognaise ragú has many ingredients that make up its magic, starting with 2-3 different chopped meats, chicken livers and pancetta, all slow-cooked in a soffritto wit the addition of both wine and milk. The result is truly delicious, but if my grandmother cut to the chase 75 years ago, I feel it would be rude not to do so today!